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A26
commentary
Guardian www.guardian.co.tt Wednesday, March 26, 2014
No one should be surprised,
alarmed, experience mental
dissonance and disequilibrium
because of the naked aggression
and violent rage that have been
displayed by teenage girls in the
secondary school system; behav-
iours which are known to be
almost chronic amongst groups of
boys and young men.
Why? Because the behaviours
displayed on television through
the use of the ubiquitous phone
cams are indicative and reflective
of what is happening at all levels
of the society.
The present campaign to choose
a political leader in the PNM is
saturated with violent and coarse
language. In times past, internal
elections in the UNC have racked
that party to the core and broken
it into many factions by the
recourse to violent language and
intent. Basdeo Panday grew fond
of saying that politics is about
undeclared warfare.
National election campaigns are
scandalous in thought, word and
deed. They are saturated with
allegations, parties and individuals
charging each other for being drug
dealers, worse than common ban-
dits. In the present and not for
the first time, a candidate for
leadership of the People s National
Movement, Pennelope Beckles, has
alleged there have been acts of
violent intimidation against her
and her campaign for leadership
of the party.
The deliberations of Parliament
are soaked with violent language,
countercharges and outright lies,
individuals against each other and
increasingly frequently against
individuals outside of the Parlia-
ment who have no right of
recourse to defend themselves and
or make the culprits pay for their
intemperate and on occasion, as
alleged, violent behaviours.
The average advertiser is not
able to sell his/her products with-
out resorting to naked and coarse
sexual images and language.
In our recent past from Presi-
dent to Prime Minister to Leader
of the Opposition, through priest
and commoner, all have screamed
against the vulgarity displayed by
the middle and upper classes on
the streets during Carnival cele-
brations.
Dozens of allegations of multi-
million-dollar fraud in government
have gone without serious investi-
gation and so without perpetrators
being made to face the courts for
their actions. Not for the first
time a government minister has
been alleged to have behaved in a
vulgar and uncouth manner in
public and allegedly done so
under the influence.
There are allegations and proven
instances of fathers and stepfa-
thers committing violent rape
against their daughters; in a few
instances it has been found that
the mother of the child has
looked the other way or refused
to believe the allegations made by
their daughters.
We should not be surprised
when significant numbers of chil-
dren and teenagers are the off-
spring of 16- and 17-year-olds
who have not been able to mother
such children and pass on values.
Even more violent have been the
action and attitudes of sperm
depositors who entice young girls
into illicit sexual activity. The
sperm depositors consist of older
men who took advantage of the
teenagers in the first instance;
drug dealers, gang members and
multiple sex offenders have raped
teenage girls under the age of
legal consent.
The television shows, the video
games, the fare available on the
Internet, much of the popular
music of the era expose young
people to every imaginable form
of violence. Religion has lost its
savour and is not reaching out to
groups of young people in need of
being shown the benefits of a
productive life.
Recently, president of TTUTA
Devanand Sinanan made the vital
observation that parents never
find it within their interest and
capacity to visit the school for
complaints made against errant
children; the only time the said
parents find the time and interest
are on the occasions they want
themselves to commit violence
against a teacher---preferably in
the presence of their children.
Then there are the homes in
which there are constant violent
acts and language as the means of
settling disputes and or establish-
ing dominance. Parenting and
family life in large segments of the
society are in desperate need!
There is the well-established
formula for citizens, usually from
dispossessed elements of society,
to receive social services and
attention to engage in acts of
burning tyres, at times in con-
frontation with the security and
with children at the front of such
displays of anguish and need.
Do we expect these patterns of
behaviour will fail to influence
and shape the actions of young
people looking for role models
and patterns of behaviours?
Obviously, the excessively vio-
lent behaviours displayed on video
are not common to all schools,
groups of young people and
homes; but we delude ourselves
into believing that it does not
occur, perhaps at a less visible
and violent manner, in other
social levels of society.
Secretary General of the Maha
Sabha Satnarayan Maharaj struck
a most realistic posture when he
said while the violence is not yet
visible in the Maha Sabha schools
he is not assuming it will not get
there and so the organisation is
taking proactive measures to pre-
vent it from reaching there.
What is the rest of the society
doing to counter the social behav-
iours of violence and crudity that
are engulfing groups of young
people?
TONY FRASER
tfraser@tstt.net.tt
VIOLENCE A REFLECTION OF SOCIETY
Courts handle well-to-do
with kid's gloves
The well-to-do are not thoughtless
cogs in the wheel like the rest of soci-
ety. They fire back intellectually when
accused of crimes, unlike society's
common cogs. Politicians as well as
the judiciary handle the well-to-do with
reserved "protocols" for this reason. By
reserved protocols I mean criminal in-
vestigation is done meticulously slow.
Effort is not exhausted by rushing to
judgment as is easily done to the un-
thinking cogs.
Every word submitted by the ac-
cused is weighed, reweighed and
weighed again. All evidence against
the accused enjoys similar treatment.
Only when it is proven politically pru-
dent to prosecute a well-to-do ac-
cused, after weighing the implications
of getting the court judgement wrong,
are well-to-do cases prosecuted.
Hopefully this explains why there is
a category of judicial prosecution called
"high-profile case loads" and why so
few criminal accusations against the
well-to-do make their way to formal
trail. The courts are not intellectually
ready to butt heads with the well-to-
do. The main function of the judicial
system is to serve as a tax extraction
agency for the State---extracting taxes
from the unthinking common cogs
who break petty laws.
High-profile cases of multimillion-
dollar state construction project em-
bezzlement, importation of contraband
in containers of chicken parts, exporta-
tion of cocaine in juice cans, Section 34
imbroglios, nepotism by former UDe-
Cott boss, crude oil spill subterfuge are
impeded by these politically correct ju-
dicial protocols.Therefore, as part of e-
government, the state ought to list all
contractors in its employment and
make it unencumberedly accessible
online. These lists ought to spell out
contractors' credentials, their tender
documents, names of projects they are
doing, project cost, contactor fee, proj-
ect start and agreed completion date,
sanctions for missing delivery date and
sanctions for cost overruns.
Sarah Parks,
via e-mail
Ravaging of Diego
Martin Hills has begun
On March 21, someone lit a fire to
burn a piece of land just north of the
St Michael's School for Boys on the
Diego Martin Main Road. On March
22, some smoke was still seen com-
ing from the area.
On March 24, new fires were ob-
served adjacent (south west) to the
area that was intentionally burned,
and immediately behind the St
Michael's School.
This is the start of the ravaging of
the Diego Martin Hills for yet an-
other year. Last year, in the dry sea-
son the fires started by people in
upper La Puerta Avenue blazed for
days afterwards, destroying trees
and mountainside vegetation and
when the rains came, landslides
were the result that caused severe
damage to homes in La Estancia
and other areas below the fire-rav-
aged hillside.
Someone should be made to ac-
count for this and it is very easy to
establish who is responsible by sim-
ply trailing the fire path back to its
origin.
Action must be taken or this will
continue, leading to the overall detri-
ment of all residing in the area when
landslides and flooding threaten or
cause damage to lives and property.
Stanley Tempro,
via e-mail